Topic: Palm

After leaving its once-touted background push data feature by the wayside, Apple is now reportedly mulling an option that would let iPhone apps run third-party background processes and give the phone true app multitasking.

While Apple is giving its phone rival Palm a drubbing in the market, both are now known to be scaling back their work commitments to employees -- though Apple is using creative reassignments to soften the perceived blow.

While Research in Motion continues to dominate the corporate smartphone market, new data shows Apple to be chipping awake at the BlackBerry maker's lead after having recently bludgeoned Palm to become the second leading supplier of advanced handsets to businesses.

Often labeled the outsider in the corporate world, Apple's iPhone has already reached the top of J.D. Power's satisfaction ranks for business smartphones -- and is simultaneously the second-largest smartphone maker in the world.

A small patent licensing firm hopes to skim profits from Apple and other top smartphone makers by suing them for allegedly violating no less than ten patents relating to GSM phone technology and voice encoding.

Apple itself is setting the record straight and says that iPhone 3G's GPS mapping unit is as powerful as in dedicated devices. Also, cut-and-paste is still a possibility, and outside testers have found the iPhone's battery life the best in its class.

The introduction of both native third-party applications and enterprise support to the iPhone is likely to sap further marketshare away from Palm and Research in Motion, says an investor note from Needham & Co.

A report claims that Singapore has all but guaranteed its iPhone launch. Also, Verizon has outbid AT&T in obtaining the coveted 700MHz wireless band, Palm is seeing early success for its entry-level Centro smartphone, and one major publication claims to know that unlimited iTunes music deals are unfounded.

AT&T's control of Cellular One is bringing the iPhone to new corners of the US, including Alaska. And Dell's venture into retail is unlikely to dent Apple's influence in retail, according to an investor note from American Technology Research.